


We Remember

by MizuLeKitten



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Enemies to Friends, M/M, Open Ending, Shiro Hunk and Pidge Show Up Briefly, platonic or romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 15:07:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11649102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MizuLeKitten/pseuds/MizuLeKitten
Summary: “I thought you said you didn’t remember who Lance was,” Hunk said, leaning forward Pidge nodded from next to him.“Cause, I didn’t at the time?” Keith furrowed his brows in confusion.Shiro snorted, “Keith doesn’t really remember names well.”~*~“Well, not if you’re going to be a jerk about it,” Lance snapped. Keith frowned, immediately prompting Lance to back track. “I didn’t- that’s not, ugh!” He ran a hand through his hair, letting out a low groan. “I remember the bonding moment!”Keith thought his heart stopped.





	We Remember

 

It had been a long day, full of training with the Blade, aerial combat, forming Voltron, and diplomacy lessons that Allura found mandatory after several… negative experiences. With the day behind them though, the Paladin’s of Voltron had all decided to relax in the common room, trading stories from Earth, and just letting the day’s troubles wash away.

“Hey, Lance, remember when you slept in Professor Montgomery's class all the time?”

Lance sighed wistfully, “Those were the times, man, those were the times.”

“How’d you pull _that_ off?” Shiro asked, sitting down next to Keith and handing him a water pouch. “Montgomery was nearly as bad as Iverson back when I had their class.”

Lance snatched Pidge’s glasses from her face, and put them on. Pidge flipped him off, but made no movement to take them back.

“Very realistic glasses,” Lance grinned.

Shiro just looked confused.

“Wait,” Keith sat up, leaning forward, “I remember that. Didn’t you just put pictures of, like, realistic eyes on there?” Hunk, Pidge and Lance stared, but Keith didn’t stop, “And the only reason you got caught was because Montgomery asked you a question.”

Shiro laughed, “You can’t tell me that worked.” He looked at the others, waiting for confirmation, and frowned. “Guys?”

“I thought you said you didn’t remember who Lance was,” Hunk said, leaning forward Pidge nodded from next to him.

“Cause, I didn’t at the time?” Keith furrowed his brows in confusion.

Shiro snorted, “Keith doesn’t really remember names well.”

“Sorry, it’s not like I was going to hear a name and magically remember everything about a person!” Keith crossed his arms, scowling at Shiro.

“Wait, so when did you realize who Lance actually was?” Pidge asked.

“Right after? Didn’t you guys hear me call him a cargo pilot?”

“I wasn’t a cargo pilot!” Lance yelled, rising from his chair.

Keith scowled, “Well, yeah, I know that _now,_ but not then. Remember? I was kind of gone for a year? Wasn’t really there when you got promoted, was I?”

Lance grumbled, falling back in his seat. “Yeah, whatever…”

Hunk looked back and forth between the two, settling on Keith once more. “So what exactly _do_ you remember?”

Keith shrugged, “General things, how Lance always flirted with people, interrupted class a lot, stuff like that.”

“Yeah, like you were anything special, hot shot,” Lance grumbled.

Keith rolled his eyes, “I also remember how he was friends with, like, everyone. It was,” He paused, clearing his throat and looking away, “Yeah, anyways. Did you really think after all this time I wouldn’t remember him?”

Lance stood, the action sudden, eyes all going to him. “Well, I’m going to bed. See you tomorrow, bright and early,” he walked away, as if running from something..

“Was it something I said?” Keith asked, looking around the group, eyes wide.

No one had an answer.

~*~

Keith slid along the floor, picking up his bayard as he went, and whirled on the gladiator. His bangs fell into his eyes, but he just blew them away, fruitlessly. He had been at it for awhile now, but the adrenaline was so damn high that Keith couldn’t even feel the ache in his muscles.

The door to the training room slid open, probably just Shiro. Keith ran forward, colliding head on with the Gladiator. His attacks were deflected again and again, but at least the Gladiator wasn’t getting any more hits in on Keith. A flash of white caught Keith’s vision, and he turned right as the Gladiator swung again, knocking him to the ground.

“End training sequence!” Someone called out.

Keith groaned as he sat up, rubbing at his head. He looked up to see Lance squatting down next to him.

“Took a hard enough hit there?” He grinned, straightening himself up and offering his hand to Keith.

He regarded it for a moment in confusion, looking up at Lance’s expectant face. Lance wasn’t here to fight? That was… different. Keith took his hand, allowing himself to be pulled up.

What was that flash of white though? Keith looked around, turning back to Lance to ask him, and looked down at his chest. Well, more accurately, his shirt, his _white_ shirt.

“What do you want, Lance,” Keith asked, rubbing the sweat from his eyes. He couldn’t believe that it was his _shirt_ that caught his attention.

Lance seemed to grow smaller under his gaze, as he looked down at the ground. “Oh, well, uh, about that…”

Keith arched an eyebrow, watching as Lance fumbled with his hands. “You going to tell me, or just stutter around it?”

“Well, not if you’re going to be a jerk about it,” Lance snapped. Keith frowned, immediately prompting Lance to back track. “I didn’t- that’s not, ugh!” He ran a hand through his hair, letting out a low groan. “I remember the bonding moment!”

Keith thought his heart stopped. For all the shit that Keith gave Lance surrounding the bonding moment, he never actually expected Lance to remember it. He had hoped it would just become a thing between, a small joke maybe. Lance had things with everyone else, after all, so maybe this could’ve been there’s?

“What,” his voice cracked, and he cleared his throat, “What do you mean?”

Lance groaned, as if he was the one suffering here, when it was Lance who dropped this bomb on Keith. “It _means_ I remember it.”

“Wait, so it just came back to you? The memory?”

“No, Keith,” he looked up at the ceiling, as if praying for strength, and Keith frowned. “I always remembered it, I lied about it, okay?”

Keith let those words sink in. It wasn’t that he was slow, he knew _immediately_ what Lance meant, but, “Why?”

“I, uh… Well, you see, uh,” he rubbed at the back of his neck, looking away. “I was, I was mad, alright?”

Keith leveled him with a disbelieving look. “Mad about what?” Lance mumbled something. “What?” Again, louder, but still incoherent. “Lance, you’re mumbling.”

“I _said,_ I was mad that you didn’t remember me when we met, and I was being petty!”

“But I do remember-” Oh. Oh, Lance didn’t realize that though. He didn’t realize that Keith had remembered him shortly after until last night. Which explained why he was here, now, admitting this.

“Oh.”

“I just wanted to tell you, since it seemed like a big deal to you, and I realized I was being super petty, and I may be an asshole, but I’m not _that_ much of an asshole and-.”

Keith covered Lance’s mouth with his hand, “ _Breathe._ ”

Keith took a step back after a moment, slowly removing his hand from Lance’s mouth. Lance slowly took a breath, holding it a moment before slowly letting it out.

“So, yeah, that happened,” Lance mumbled.

Keith’s mind was still whirling, though. Lance actually remembered. He _actually_ remembered. That meant- all this time-

“I, uh, thank you,” Keith finally settled on, “for, you know, telling me.”

“Again, it seemed really important to you,” Lance shrugged. “Why was it so important anyways?”

“It was our first big act as a team, and the first time I really bonded with any of you guys. I thought since you forgot it that…” Keith cleared his throat. “It’s nothing.”

“No, no, no, you can’t get out of it that easily. I poured my heart out to you, and now you gotta return the favor.”

“Doesn’t me talking about you last night count?”

“Nope!” Lance grinned, his hands on his hips.

Keith groaned, “I thought since you forgot that meant that I wasn’t going to be able to bond with anyone here!”

Lance paused, eyebrows furrowing. “Dude, that doesn’t make sense.”

Keith could feel the anger explode inside him, not at Lance, but at himself. “Back at the Garrison you could talk to anyone, Lance, _anyone._ Whether it was crappy flirting, messing around, or seeing if someone was okay. You liked everyone,” he sighed, “but you didn’t like me. I thought- I thought if I got to be on good terms with you… it’d make it easier with everyone else. I’m not the best at this, but you _are._ ” He clenched his fists tightly, nails digging into the cloth of his gloves.

“Oh. Oh, Keith,” Lance reached out towards him, stopping an inch away at Keith’s dejected look.  “Keith, buddy, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize it was that important to you because I was focused on this just, ugh, this stupid rivalry.”

“I didn’t realize how important remembering you was to you either, so like… it’s fine.” Keith shrugged. He wasn’t good at heart to hearts, he didn’t want to fuck up more than he already had.

“No, that was me being, just, selfish.” Lance pulled back, brows furrowing in thought before his entire face lit up. “I know! I’m going to be the best quiznacking friend you’ve ever had!”

“I still don’t think you’re using that word correctly,” Keith commented without thought.

“Nope, nuh uh, shush. Friends let friends say things even if they aren’t correct.” Lance slung his arm around Keith’s shoulder, gesturing widely out in front of him.

“That-That doesn’t sound right.”

“Who’s the person that was friends with everyone?”

“God, are you going to lord that over me now?”

“Maybe a little.”

They had a lot of things to work through, but it was a start.

~*~

Keith grunted as he tried to pretty much drag Lance’s weight through the Galra battleship’s corridors. He wanted to be annoyed, really wanted to, but all he could feel was the intense beating of his heart in his chest, as his mind focused solely on getting Lance back to Red, and getting the hell out of there.

Lance groaned, eyes blinking open next to him. Lance stood up a bit more, taking some of the weight from Keith’s shoulders. He hissed, hand not wrapped around Keith’s neck falling to the wound on his side.

The suit had already sealed up from the blast he took, and was putting pressure on it. When Allura had told them the suits were designed to help slow wounds, everyone had been impressed. Even Keith would admitted to seeing the old altean technology in a new, more grateful, light.

Right now he was more than grateful. Keith had seen the blast, heard Lance’s initial scream, had seen the seared and damaged flesh before the suit had had a chance to mend itself. The scent of burnt flesh wouldn’t leave his nose.

“Keith?” Lance drew Keith’s attention back to the present, “Dude, you’re,” he let out a wet cough, “kind of death gripping my arm there.” There was a weak chuckle as Keith immediately loosened his grasp.

“Sorry,” Keith said through clenched teeth as he pushed ahead.

“It’s ‘kay.” Lance sucked in a pained breath.

“Damn it, Lance, why’d you jump in front of that shot?” Keith could hear the hostility in his voice, but didn’t care. Lance could’ve died.

“Couldn’t let… let you get hit,” Lance wheezed out.

“I would’ve been fine.”

“Nuh uh,” his words were becoming slurred, “Saw… it. Spinal cord, shot there.”

Keith knew Lance was right. He may not have seen the soldier, but he _knew_ that he was right. Lance had an impeccable eye. Although he also had a self-sacrificial streak a mile wide.

“Hey,” Lance asked after the silence had dragged on for too long, “think I’ll- think I’ll remember this? This bonding moment?” He gave a wet laugh before hurling into a coughing fit.

Keith waited for the coughing to die down before asking, “You mad at me about anything?”

Lance caught his breath, “Well, you did take the last cookie two days ago…”

“Idiot,” Keith chuckled.

Lance looked up at him, eyelids drooping, but was still able to find the energy to smirk. “You love me.”

Keith sighed, although his lips quirked upwards, “Of course I do.”

The red lion came into view. Keith could feel himself relax as their presence filled his mind. Lance would be fine now.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this took a bit to get done!  
> I hope you like it


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